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Can We Trust the Historical Accuracy of the Exodus Story?

A DVD Documentary Review

Have you heard that a great many of the world’s archeologists and historians don’t think the Biblical account of the Exodus ever happened? Apparently, they don’t see evidence for any of it. I’m not just talking about a mass migration of the Israelites out of Egypt, they don’t see evidence for the Hebrew people ever being in Egypt, as slaves or otherwise. And there are even some prominent Jewish Rabbis jumping on their bandwagon, saying these things are not historical facts, they’re just religiously important traditions. What? Sounds like confusion to me.

As parents, it’s important that we teach our children truth. Can the Bible be trusted as an accurate historical account or not? I think the answer to that question is more important than just about anything. Very recently, my family walked through a season of enormous testing. As a family, we believed God was telling us to take some huge steps of faith, and throughout it all, we believed He was pointing us back to the story of the Red Sea. In that story, the Israelites were trapped. In front of them was an enormous body of water. Behind them, a powerful army was closing in. I’m sure at that moment, those people never imagined that God was going to open the waters and let them walk across on dry ground. My family was also facing a seemingly impossible situation, and if we had any doubt that the Bible was historically accurate, we could not have taken the precarious steps that we needed to take. But over and over we reminded ourselves that the God who opened the Red Sea is no respecter of persons, and if He did it for the Israelites, He could do it for us.

So when the opportunity came to review a new documentary about the historical accuracy of this very Bible account,I jumped on it. In Patterns of Evidence: The Exodus, filmmaker Tim Mahoney takes a scientific approach to the question of whether or not the Exodus is historically accurate. This past weekend, Matthew and I gathered the kids around the TV and watched it.

In full disclosure, just in case you haven’t already figured it out, I have to say that I went into this with a bias. I believe with everything in me that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, and I fully believe that regardless of what we finite humans think we know, God’s word always supersedes the work of even our best “scholars.” But I was really excited to see what kind of evidence the film was going to show for what I already know to be historically accurate.

It was fascinating! It turns out ALL of the evidence that we would expect to see in the geological and historical record IS actually there, and in the right order. But there’s a very good reason why archaeologists and historians are not acknowledging it. For that, you’ll have to watch the documentary! Sorry, no spoilers here.

What I can say is that the documentary is really well done. It’s fast-paced — the two hours went by quickly, and even my 11 year old stayed engaged. It’s visually appealing — Mahoney takes us on an exciting journey all around the globe. Plus his artistic editing and educational animations make the information easy to understand. And it’s thorough and balanced — Mahoney interviews scholars and experts with a wide range of viewpoints.

For those of us who already believe that God’s word is true, this documentary is exciting!

Disclosure

(In accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.)Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing the DVD for review. The opinions in this post are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Jenni Stahlmann is the mom of seven kids (ages 1 to 20) including one on the autism spectrum. She and her husband Matthew homeschool the whole brood. Jenni has been a journalist for more than 20 years, having covered government, business and family issues for a wide range of magazines and newspapers. Currently, she and Jody co-host a weekly syndicated radio show, write a weekly newspaper column and freelance articles and speak at churches, political groups and homeschool conventions about parenting on purpose.

Jenni Stahlmann is the mom of seven kids (ages 1 to 20) including one on the autism spectrum. She and her husband Matthew homeschool the whole brood. Jenni has been a journalist for more than 20 years, having covered government, business and family issues for a wide range of magazines and newspapers. Currently, she and Jody co-host a weekly syndicated radio show, write a weekly newspaper column and freelance articles and speak at churches, political groups and homeschool conventions about parenting on purpose.

Thank you for your great review of our film. We appreciate it and glad you enjoyed it- along with some of your readers too hopefully!
We wanted to let you know about our ‘Thinker Updates’ since you & your family seem to be thinkers. They include fascinating research & finds with new evidence related to the Bible, plus more . We typically send them out once a week and then archive the blogs for reference & pleasure reading. You can sign up here to become a ‘Thinker’ http://patternsofevidence.com/blog/2016/01/01/sign-up-for-thinker-updates/

We also carry homeschool curriculum for ages 7-14 on this topic. It’s called Patterns of Evidence :Young Explorers. High School curriculm will be out in early 2018.
Bless you!

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